My morning makeup routine is one of my favorite parts of my entire day. Rocking out to a little Justin Bieber, I feel like it's the time when I get to experiment with my beauty look in a calming, therapeutic way. As I sweep Too Faced foundation onto my face, and carefully tap my Urban Decay Naked Heat shadows onto my eyelids, I feel happy, confident, and ready to take on my day as a video host.
To me, beauty represents a soothing, inspirational outlet that I look forward to from the second I wake up. It's fun and affirming — and everyone at work knows I always show up with my brows on-point.
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So, when someone dared me to swap my morning routine with a very low-maintenance co-worker, I was pretty hesitant. I'm so used to getting a confidence bump from my meticulous makeup process, I felt nervous about going to the office with such a drastic make-under. When I'm taking on the world with a little help from my favorite Glossier concealer, I know that I hold my head up high and never break eye-contact. But if I didn't have the comfort of my usual glow, I worried that I'd look tired and drab — and just less like myself.
No lie: Aside from saving an hour of sleep every morning, trading my Kardashian-worthy contouring for a restrained dab of lip tint wasn't easy. It made me feel naked and less like myself, but it also uncovered just how much my sense of self is linked to that bursting makeup bag. And even though I couldn't be happier to be reunited with my high-maintenance routine three days later, I learned that I definitely don't need all those products to feel confident. Since completing the challenge, I've even gone bare-faced a few times. It's all about what I'm feeling that day — as opposed to what I'm worried others will think.
Check out my entire make-under experiment in the video above, and let us know if you'll be trying your own beauty routine swap anytime soon.
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